sb. Also 9 sponsing, sponcing. [Of obscure origin.]
1. One or other of the triangular platforms before and abaft the paddle-boxes of a steamer.
α. 1835. Naut. Mag., IV. 154. The ‘Lightning’ was ran into by a collier, which struck her just abaft her paddle-box…. Her sponcings and sponcing-timbers were broken.
1846. A. Young, Naut. Dict., 292. Sponsings, or Sponcings, in a steam-ship, the curve of the timbers and planking towards the outer part of the wing before and abaft each of the paddle-boxes.
β. 1838. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 384/2. Breadth over the sponsons, 43 ft. Ditto over the paddle boxes, 48 ft.
1871. Kingsley, At Last, i. Then had come … a day of … watching … the water from the sponson behind the paddle-boxes.
attrib. 1835. [see above].
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 644. Sponson-Rim, the same as wing-wale.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2287. Sponson-beam, one of the two projecting beams uniting the paddle-box beam with the ship’s side.
2. A gun platform, standing out from the side of a vessel. Also attrib.
1862. W. H. Russell, My Diary North & South, I. 291. The ship … is armed … with rifled field-pieces and howitzers on the sponsons.
1887. Daily News, 24 Oct., 5/5. The system … of carrying heavy guns … in sponson ports so high on the poop and forecastle. Ibid. (1897), 28 July, 8/5. Their construction (five sponsons on each side of the upper deck) causes them to roll heavily.
Hence Sponson v. trans., to support, or set out, on a sponson. Also Sponsoned ppl. a.
1895. Morn. Post, 10 Aug., 4/5. The same may be said of cruisers, part of whose most important armament is sponsoned out on the broadside.
1897. River & Coast, 4 Sept., 13/1. The sponsoned deck acts as a guard to the hull.
